Band Wars: A New Horn
by Anath Tsurugi
Summary: A long time ago...on a practice field far, far away...I think you get the picture, and if not then read the fic. If anybody out there is part of the Heritage Eagles marching band then you might find this interesting. :
1. Default Chapter

(A/N) well, this interesting. This parody is just something I randomly came up with. Basically it's Star Wars with the kids in my band playing the roles. Some of my band friends wanted me to post it so…here I am. But anyway, let me know what you think of it. Tell me if I should continue with it or not.

**__**

Band Wars

A New Horn

It is a period of band war. Striking from a hidden **Storage Room,** rebel brass leaders have won their first victory against the evil **Woodwind Empire.** Brass spies have managed to steal plans for the Empire's new secret weapon, the **Death Flute,** an armored instrument so high-pitched it could spell doom for the fledgling **Brass Alliance**.

Pursued by the Empire's sinister clarinets, **Princess Amanda **races home aboard her tenor sax case, custodian of the **Minimally Speaking Show, **a show so difficult it can make students drop dead. This show could be the only thing that can destroy the Death Flute and bring order to the Marching Band.

The night skies of Colorado seemed peaceful as a tenor sax case drifted through the clouds. The occupants of the case were just starting to breath a sigh of relief. The Littleton System was just ahead of them. The saxes hadn't found them.

But suddenly, out of nowhere, there came a loud blast. All on board the case quaked with fear. There was no mistaking that sound.

The brass warriors on the case prepared for battle as an alto sax case sailed up behind them. The sound waves that the second case had produced had stopped the first dead in its tracks. The case now hovered motionless, miles above the ground, waiting for the sax troopers to board it.

The alto sax case pulled up to the tenor sax case and docked. The sax troopers set about drilling open the main clasp.

Meanwhile, on board the case, two band students wandered about the winding corridors as the trumpet warriors raced to the front of the case to defend it from the sax troopers. The shorter of the two, Tim2-Sax2, was so attached to his tenor sax that it never left his mouth. Now he could only speak in beeps and whistles. This made him an apt spy for the Brass. In the days of peace, before the war between the Brass and the Woodwinds, Tim2 had been a noted band student. But when the Woodwinds took over he, having no desire for power, joined the resistance.

The taller of the students, A-10dr, was the resident worry wart. A good advisor and interpreter, the student was still known to obsess over the smallest thing.

Just then another blast shook the case.

"Did you hear that?" A-10dr asked fearfully. "They're breaking through the main clasp! We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!"

Tim2 whistled a word of comfort to his friend but A-10 only continued to rant as more trumpets raced past them.

"We're doomed." he said, plain and simple. "There'll be no escape for the Princess this time."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Meanwhile, back at the main clasp, the Brass rebels positioned themselves along the entry corridor, preparing for the arrival of the sax troopers. They stood tensely, trumpets held at the ready, knowing that any given moment could be their last.

Suddenly the clasp broke away and the forward bit of the case's lid exploded inward. Smoke billowed into the corridor along with pieces of smoldering debris. Out of the smoke came bolts of searing energy. Their cause soon followed. The sax troopers came pouring through the gaping hole in the case. They were all clad in pure white marching uniforms with black trim. A sight that would strike fear into the heart of any sane creature. The troopers all held shiny alto saxophones. This was the source of the blaster bolts. With every note that was played an energy beam was emitted from the bell of each instrument.

The sax troopers stormed through the corridors, firing at anything that moved. But the Brass fired back just as fiercely. The sounds of blaster fire and the clash of alto sax and trumpet echoed throughout the passageways of the case. The battle only ceased when each one of the Brass warriors lay dead, their blood barely noticeable against the red of their marching jackets.

It was during this break in the action that **he** boarded the case. A figure so evil and cruel that even his own troops scurried out of his path as he strode down the main corridor. He paid no mind to the masses of dead Brass that he was walking through. He was dressed in a jet black Drum Major's uniform. A long black cape flowed out behind him as he walked. His shako was pulled so low that it covered his eyes. A computerized viewing screen on the shako's inside allowed him to see the outside world. This was Darth Fred. The Empire's most feared Drum Major.

Fred made his way through the corpses to a group of sax troopers. They had cornered the pilot of the case.

"The Minimally Speaking show is not in the main computer." the lead trooper reported to him.

Angered by this, Fred grabbed the pilot by the neck and lifted him off of the floor.

"Where is the music you intercepted? What have you done with that show?!"

"We intercepted no music!" the pilot tried to speak through his crushed windpipe. "This is a consular case. We're on a- diplomatic mission."

"If this is a consular case, where is the section leader?!" Darth Fred asked contemptuously.

But the pilot could no longer answer. He had strangled to death. Fred tossed his limp body aside and turned to address the troopers.

"Commander, tear this case apart until you've found that show! And bring me the passengers. I want them alive!!"

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

A-10dr wandered the case, dodging the troopers and desperately searching for his companion. Tim2 had disappeared in all of the commotion.

"Tim2-Sax2, where are you?!" he asked indignantly as he searched the underbelly of the case. That was when he spotted something.

Tim2 was kneeling in front of a small alcove. A-10 thought he saw a taller figure in white crouched there as well. He watched as Tim2 tucked something into the bell of his instrument. Then Tim2 walked over to him as if nothing had happened. A-10 turned his attention back to where he had seen the figure in white but there was nothing there. By now he was pretty sure that he had imagined it.

"At last! Where have you been?!" A-10 asked, more than a little irked. "They're heading in this direction. What are we going to do?! We'll be sent to the training school of Pueblo! Forced to play woodwind instruments!"

Tim2 played a small note of annoyance at A-10 before walking away.

"Wait a minute! Where are you going?!"

Meanwhile, the figure that A-10 had thought he'd seen was still crouched in the shadows, watching as the two students headed for the escape reed launch bay. The figure was a young woman clad in white robes. She was tall and slender with blonde hair that was cropped short at her neck. Though it couldn't be seen at first glance because of her hunched position, she clutched a tenor saxophone to her chest. This was Princess Amanda.

Amanda ducked further into her haven when she heard the sound of the sax troopers approaching. But the commander still saw her.

"There's one. Set your saxes for stun-"

He never got a chance to finish the sentence because at that moment Amanda fired a shot and made a break for it.

A second trooper brushed past his fallen commander and took a shot at Amanda. The stun blast hit her retreating back and she fell, unconscious, to the floor of the case.

"She'll be all right. Inform Lord Fred. We have a prisoner."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"Hey! You're not permitted in there. It's restricted for warriors only. You'll be fired for sure." A-10 scolded Tim2 as the younger student boarded an escape reed and attempted to operate it. Tim2 gave a chiding whistle before continuing with his task.

"Don't you call me a mindless tuba you midget tenor! Now come on off of that before somebody sees you."

Tim2 beeped in protest, trying to explain.

"Secret mission?! What show?! What are you talking about?! I'm not getting on that thing!"

But A-10 was soon persuaded to do otherwise when a blast from an alto sax exploded over his head.

"I'm going to regret this." A-10 said to himself as he boarded the escape reed.

Tim2 activated the release mechanism and the reed craft was jettisoned out of the open hatch. Tim2 then activated the engines attached to the rear of the craft. Hence, instead of plummeting to Earth, the reed descended at a tolerable pace.

"That's funny. The damage doesn't look as bad from out here." But then a thought struck A-10.

"Are you sure this thing is safe?"

Whatever Tim2's answer was, it did nothing to console the distraught A-10.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Back on board the case, Princess Amanda had regained consciousness only to find herself a captive of the Woodwinds. She was now being marched to the bridge of the case. She would meet her captor momentarily but Amanda had a feeling that she already knew who was behind it. And indeed, as the dark Drum Major approached her, Amanda's suspicions were confirmed.

"Darth Fred." she said coldly. "Only you would be so bold. The Woodwind Senate will not sit still for this! When they hear you've attacked a diplomatic-"

"Don't act so surprised, Your Highness. You weren't on any mercy mission this time." Darth Fred interrupted her mockingly. "Several transmissions were beamed to this case by Brass spies. I want to know what happened to the show they sent you."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Amanda replied. "I'm a member of the Woodwind Senate on a diplomatic mission to California High."

"You are part of the Brass Alliance and a traitor! Take her away!!" Fred snapped at the troopers detaining Amanda.

Not wanting to incur the wrath of the Drum Major, the sax troopers rushed away with the Princess.

Then, an officer in a drab green marching uniform approached Fred. In the holster at his side, the officer carried a clarinet.

"Holding her is dangerous. If word of this gets out, it could generate sympathy for the Brass in the Senate." he warned as the two began to walk back to the main clasp.

"I have traced the Brass spies to her. Now she is my only link to finding their secret storage room."

"She'll die before she'll tell you anything."

"Leave that to me." Darth Fred said ominously. "Send a distress signal. And then inform the Senate that all aboard were killed."

"Lord Fred." came the voice of another officer. "The Minimally Speaking show is not aboard this case and no transmissions were made. An escape reed was jettisoned during the fighting. No brass were aboard." he reported.

"She must have hidden the show on the escape reed. Send a detachment down to retrieve it. See to it personally, commander. There'll be no one to stop us this time."

"Yes, sir."


	2. chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

"How did we get into this mess? I really don't know." A-10 griped as he and Tim2 slogged down a mountain of sand.

Tim2 had managed to pilot the reed safely to the ground only for the two to find themselves in a desert wasteland. This was the Littleton System. But neither of the two students knew this.

"We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life. This is such a desolate place." A-10 said miserably. But then he noticed that Tim2 was walking away from him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Tim2 responded with a beep and a nod in the direction he'd been walking.

"Well I'm not going that way. It's much too rocky. This way is much easier." A-10 said, indicating the opposite direction. "What makes you think there are settlements over there?"

Tim2 launched into a long explanation on why he thought they should go his way.

"Don't get technical with me." A-10 retorted. "What mission? What are you talking about?!"

Tim2 tried to continue but A-10 wouldn't have it.

"I've just about had enough of you! Go that way! You'll be dead within a day, you near-sighted woodwind!" he shouted angrily as he stalked off in the opposite direction. "And don't let me catch you following me begging for help. Because you won't get it."

Tim2 played several notes of pleading but A-10 would not be persuaded.

"No more adventures! I'm not going that way."

Tim2 sighed and continued on his way, never once looking back. He had a mission to complete.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Hours later the sun had risen and A-10 was still stumbling about, lost, bewildered, and weak from lack of food and water.

Finally he collapsed in the sand, beaten down by the heat of the sun.

"That reed-playing little twerp! This is all his fault!" A-10 lamented through his parched lips. "He tricked me into going this way. But he'll do no better."

Just then, something on the horizon caught A-10's attention.

"Wait! What's that? A transport. I'm saved. Over here!" he tried to shout through his dry throat. "Hey! Help! Please help!!"

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Tim2 wasn't fairing much better. He had found no sign of Littleton High School or the settlements that were rumored to surround it.

At the moment, Tim2 was making his way down a rocky canyon. And though he couldn't tell for certain, Tim2 felt that he was being watched. And of course, he was right. Figures decked in red, cloth robes were hidden behind boulders, watching the young student. No facial features were distinguishable beneath their hoods. They spoke in a strange language and each of them carried a battered mellophone.

Tim2 was just walking by, beeping nervously, when one of them leapt up and fired at him. The blast caught Tim2 in the chest and he fell to the ground, stunned.

The Mellophones rushed forward to claim their new captive. He would be worth a lot. Mechanic students were in great demand by the farmers of the Littleton System.

Three of the Mellophones lifted Tim2 from the ground and followed the other two back to their transport, a giant sand scaffold. Five other students were tied up on the upper platform. Two Mellophones dragged tim2 to the top and tied him up. Then they climbed back down and the five Mellophones began to push the scaffold across the desert. The first settlement wasn't too far away.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Tim2 woke up some time later. The first thing he noted was the fact that he was tied up. Then he noticed who it was that was tied up next to him.

"It's about time you woke up." A-10 said grumpily.

Just then the scaffold stopped and two Mellophones climbed up.

"We're doomed." A-10 whispered, suddenly afraid. "Do you think they'll kill us?"

Tim2 just shrugged as the first Mellophone approached and aimed her weapon at A-10.

The second Mellophone untied the six students and motioned for them to climb down. They had reached the first settlement.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Meanwhile, back in the desert, the sax troopers had reached the abandoned reed and realized their mistake.

"Someone was on the reed. The tracks go off in this direction." the commander said, trying to hide his alarm.

"Look sir, students!" one of the troopers shouted, identifying a small piece of brown cloth that had torn off of Tim2's robe in the crash.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Chris Skywalker slowly walked out of the small hovel that was his home. The Mellophones had come back with more students to sell. Chris thought that they had enough students to feed as it was but Uncle Will always insisted on buying more every time the Mellophones came around.

"Chris! Chris!" he suddenly heard the voice of his aunt, Courtney.

Chris quickly ran back to the hovel where his aunt stood waiting.

"Chris, tell Uncle if he gets a translator be sure it speaks Baritone."

"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice, but I'll remind him." Chris said before running back to join Uncle Will.

As much as Chris hated it, he couldn't deny that they needed help on the farm. When the Woodwinds had taken over the cities had fallen into disrepair. Now all that remained were the high schools. An area was now defined by the high school that was in it. Chris and his family worked a small farm at the edge of the system. Littleton High itself was a good day's travel from home on a fast case.

Even so, the distance of the high school wouldn't matter much to Chris if this year's crop failed as the last two had. All the systems of the world were now completely self-sufficient. They all grew their own food and made their own clothing. Jeans and fast-food restaurants were a thing of the past.

Chris knew that a lot of the Littleton System depended on the produce from their farm. But if this year's harvest failed then the family would barely make enough money to stay alive, let alone for Chris to get off the farm. Every year Chris hoped to see the harvest bring in enough money for him to leave the Littleton System and see the world beyond. His greatest wish was to enroll in the great Brass Academy of the Pomona System. Maybe even join the rebellion against the Woodwinds. But the past few years had put his dream to the test.

Completely oblivious to Chris' daydreaming, Uncle Will continued to inspect the line of students. He had already chosen a woodwind student who carried a bass clarinet. The student wore a red armband which signified that she was good for manual labor.

Then Will noticed A-10.

"you! I suppose you're trained for etiquette and protocol." he said, noting the yellow armband that signified A-10 as a communications student.

"Protocol? Why it's my primary expertise, sir. I am well-versed in all the customs."

"I have no need for a protocol student." Will said brusquely.

"Of course you haven't, sir. Not in an environment such as this. That is why I have been trained-" A-10 started to say.

"What I really need is a student who understands the binary language of water keys."

"Water keys? Sir, my first job was programming binary spit valves. Very similar to your water keys in most respects."

"Can you speak Baritone?"

"Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language to me. I'm as fluent in Baritone as-"

"All right, shut up. I'll take these two." Will said to the Mellophone walking beside him.

"Chris!" he called to his nephew. "Take these two over to the garage. I want 'em cleaned up before dinner."

"But I was going over to Bell Station to pick up some key oil." Chris complained.

Will gave Chris a knowing look.

"You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done. Now come on. Get to it."

Chris stalked off, muttering to himself as the two new purchases followed him. The bass clarinet, Paige2-Bass4 to be exact, was practicing her instrument with a fury. But suddenly every note she hit came out badly tuned and squeaky. Chris turned back to check on her. He pulled the clarinet from her hands and removed the reed from the mouthpiece, only to find that it was cracked.

"Uncle Will! This Woodwind has a bad reed! Look!" Chris called to Will, holding up the damaged reed.

"Hey, what are you trying to push on us?!" Will asked angrily.

During the argument that followed, A-10 noticed that Tim2 was still struggling against the ropes that still bound his wrists. Not even sure why he was doing it, A-10 tapped Chris on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir. But that Woodwind student is in prime condition. A real bargain."

"Uncle Will! What about that one?!" Chris suggested, pointing to Tim2.

"What about that blue one?" Will asked, referring to the blue armband that signified Tim2 as a mechanic. "We'll take that one."

Another Mellophone rushed to untie Tim2.

"I think you'll be really pleased with that one, sir. He really is in first class condition. I've worked with him before." A-10 said as Tim2 came to join them.

"Now don't you forget this." A-10 said to Tim2 as the two fell into step behind Chris. "Why I should stick my neck out for you is quite beyond my capacity."


	3. Chapter 3

"It just isn't fair." Chris said as he retrieved a box of cleaning tools from a shelf in the garage. "Paul was right. I'm never gonna get out of here."

"Is there anything I might do to help, sir?" A-10 inquired from his place in the corner. His robes had been washed and he'd taken a much needed bath.

"Not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock." Chris answered sarcastically.

"I don't think so, sir." A-10 said, not really understanding the sarcasm. "I'm only a student and not very knowledgeable about such things. Well, not in this system anyway. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure which system I'm in."

"Well, if there's a bright center to the universe you're in the system that it's farthest from. " Chris explained bitterly.

"I see, sir."

"You can call me Chris."

"I see, sir Chris."

"Just Chris." Chris said with a small laugh.

"Oh." A-10 replied, slightly miffed. "And I am A-10dr, human-student relations. And this is my counterpart, Tim2-Sax2."

"Hello." Chris responded casually as he started to clean Tim2's sax. "This horn's pretty banged up. It looks like you boys have seen a lot of action."

"With all we've been through, sometimes I'm amazed we're still living. What with the rebellion and all." A-10 commented, almost to himself.

At these words Chris jumped up, his tools completely forgotten.

"You were with the Brass against the Empire?!" he asked, shocked.

"That's how we came to be in your services. If you take my meaning, sir."

"Have you been in many battles?" Chris asked excitedly, completely forgetting that he'd told A-10 not to call him sir.

"Several, I think. Actually there's not much to tell. I'm not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at telling stories. Well, nothing of any interest anyway."

"Oh." Chris said, clearly disappointed. He knelt next to Tim2 once more to finish his work.

"Well my little friend." Chris grunted as he reached down into the bell of the sax, only to find that there was something blocking it. "You've got something jammed in here real good. Were you on a cloud case or a-" Chris started to ask, but he was interrupted yet again.

Chris had flipped a hidden switch on the object in the sax bell, which happened to be a holographic projector. The tiny projector emitted a high-pitched whine. Chris jumped back just as the holographic image of a young woman appeared out of the bell.

"Help me, Jason Kenobi. You're my only hope." the woman said. She continued to repeat the plea, as if the recording was broken somehow.

"What's this?" Chris asked, shocked for the second time that day.

"What is what?" A-10 said, trying to speak to Tim2. "He asked you a question. What is that?"

After a few beeps from Tim2, A-10 gave his answer.

"Oh, he says it's nothing, sir. Merely a malfunction, old data. Pay it no mind."

Chris stared at the image, mesmerized.

"Who is she? She's beautiful."

"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, air. I think she was a passenger on our last voyage. A person of some importance I believe. Our captain was returning-" A-10 started to say.

"Is there any more of this recording?" Chris asked him.

A-10 turned to ask Tim2 and got a most unusual answer.

"He says that he's the property of Jason Kenobi, a resident of these parts, and it's a private message for him. Quite frankly, sir, I don't know what he's talking about. Our last master was Section Leader Antilles. But with all we've been through, Tim2 has become a bit eccentric."

"Jason Kenobi. I wonder if he means old Ben Kenobi." Chris said aloud.

"I beg your pardon, sir. Do you know what he's talking about?" A-10 asked.

"Well…I don't know anyone named Jason." Chris said, climbing to his feet. "But old Ben lives out beyond the Dune Sea. He's kind of a strange old Baritone."

Chris paced a bit before turning back to the image.

"I wonder who she is. It sounds like she's in trouble. I'd better play back the whole thing." Chris said as he reached for Tim2's sax. But Tim2 backed away when Chris came near. He let out a stream of warning whistles.

"Behave yourself, tim2. You're going to get us into trouble. It's all right. You can trust him. He's our new master." A-10 chided the younger student.

Tim2 beeped a quick explanation.

"He says that the neck strap you gave him has short-circuited his tenor sax. He suggests that if you remove the strap, he might be able to play back the entire recording."

"All right. There you go." Chris said, unclipping the strap and pulling it free of Tim2's neck.

But the second the neck strap was away, the young woman vanished into thin air.

"Hey! Wait a minute? Where'd she go?! Bring her back! Play back the entire message!" Chris fumed at the little student.

Tim2 played a few notes of confusion.

"What message?!" A-10 exploded, outraged. "The one you've just been playing! The one you're carrying inside your rusty saxophone!"

"Chris! CHRIS!!" Aunt Courtney's voice suddenly drifted into the garage.

"I'm sorry, sir. But he appears to have picked up a slight flutter." A-10 apologized to Chris.

"Here, see what you can do with him. I'll be right back." Chris said, handing A-10 a pair of pliers and heading for the tunnel.

"Just you reconsider playing that message for him!" A-10 rounded on Tim2 angrily once Chris was out of ear-shot.

Tim2 whistled a question to the taller student.

"No! I don't think he likes you at all." A-10 answered matter-of-factly.

Tim2 beeped yet another question.

"No. I don't like either." A-10 answered.

Tim2 played a small note of sadness before turning away from A-10.

Chris made his way to the kitchen and was met with the uncomfortable silence of his aunt and uncle. He sat down with them at the dinner table and tried to eat his food but he couldn't manage it. There was just too much on his mind. So he finally decided to confess his suspicions to his uncle.

"You know, I think that mechanic student we bought might have been stolen."

"What makes you think that?" Uncle Will asked through a mouthful of food.

"I stumbled across a recording while I was cleaning his sax. He says that he belongs to someone called Jason Kenobi."

At these words Will and Courtney shared a secret glance of concern.

"I thought he might have meant old Ben. Do you know what he's talking about?"

"Mm-mm." Will answered, shaking his head.

"I wonder if he's related to Ben." Chris said to himself.

"That woodsy is just a crazy old man. Tomorrow I want you to take that student to Bell Station and have its memory erased. That'll be the end of it. He belongs to us now." Will said sternly.

"What if this Jason comes looking him?"

"He won't. I don't think he exists anymore. He died about the same time as your father."

"He knew my father?" Chris asked, looking up in surprise.

"I told you to forget it." Will said, giving Chris a reprimanding look. "The only concern is to prepare those new students for tomorrow. In the morning I want them in the south field working on those condensers."

Chris bowed his head. But he eventually looked up again with another question in his eyes.

"I think those new students are gonna work out fine. In fact I- I was also thinking about our agreement. About me staying on another season." Chris said hesitantly.

His guardians stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue.

"And if these new students do work out I want to transmit my application to the academy this year." he finished.

"You mean the next semester before the harvest?" Uncle Will asked.

"Sure. There's more than enough students." Chris argued.

"Harvest is when I need you the most. It's only one season more. This year we'll make enough from the harvest, I'll be able to hire some more hands and then you can go to the academy next year. You must understand I need you here." Will tried to explain.

"But it's a whole other year!" Chris protested.

"It's only one more season!" Will said, getting impatient.

"Yeah that's what you said when Paul and Andrew left." Chris complained bitterly as he rose from the table.

"Where are you going?" Aunt Courtney asked him.

"Looks like I'm going nowhere." Chris retorted sarcastically as he headed back down the main tunnel of their underground home. "I gotta go finish cleaning that sax."

Once Chris was out of earshot Courtney turned to her husband.

"Will, he can't stay here forever. Most of his friends have gone. It means so much to him." she said, almost pleading.

"I'll make it up to him next season. I promise." Will answered with a tender glance at his wife.

"Chris just isn't a farmer, Will. He has too much of his father in him." Courtney said with a small laugh.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Will said, all tenderness suddenly gone from his face as his mind drifted back to darker days.

Chris strode into the darkened garage. He looked around for the two students until he found A-10 hidden in a corner.

"What are you doing hiding back here?"

"It wasn't my fault, sir! Please don't fire me!" A-10 pleaded. "I told him not to go but- he's crazy- insane! He kept babbling on about his mission!"

"Oh no." Chris whispered, finally putting two and two together and racing out of the garage.

Chris headed above ground, A-10 hot on his heels. He scanned the horizon for any sign of the small student. The sky was already growing dark.

"That Tim2 has always been a problem. These Woodwind students are getting quite out of hand. Even I can't understand their logic at times." A-10 said, coming up behind Chris.

"How could I be so stupid?! He's nowhere in sight. Blast!" Chris mentally kicked himself as he continued to scan the desert.

"Pardon me, sir. But couldn't we go after him?"

"It's too dangerous with all the Drummers around. We'll have to wait until morning."

"Chris! I'm shutting the power down!" Uncle Will called from the house.

"All right! I'll be there in a few minutes!" Chris shouted back. "Boy, am I gonna get it. You know, that little student is going to cost me a lot of trouble." Chris said to A-10 as they headed back in.

"Oh, he excels at that, sir."

The next morning, as the sun rose over the Littleton desert, Will came out of the hovel calling for his nephew.

"Chris! Chris! CHRIS!!"

Getting no response, Will made his way to the kitchen where he found Courtney making breakfast.

"Have you seen Chris this morning?"

"He said he had some things to do before he started today, so he left early." Courtney explained.

"Did he take those two new students with him?"

"I think so."

"Well, he'd better have those units in the south field repaired by mid-day or there'll be hell to pay."


	4. chapter 4

"Lookit! There's something moving on the scanner up ahead. That might be our little Tim2. Hit the accelerator!" Chris shouted to A-10 in the sea next to him. The two were piloting an open-air piccolo case over the desert. Little did they suspect, they were being watched.

Two figures clad in dirty brown robes were perched on a cliff that overlooked the flatlands. These were Drummers. The most feared bandits in the Littleton System.

One of them leapt up from his cover, prepared to chuck a drumstick at the speeder case. But the other one quickly jumped up to restrain his companion. It wouldn't do for their prey to see them too soon. They had to get reinforcements.

The two quickly ran back to their tribal equipment trailer for their snares. One farm boy and a student wouldn't be too tough to take down.

Meanwhile, completely unaware of their peril, A-10 and Chris had caught up with Tim2.

"Woah! Just where do you think you're going?" Chris asked Tim2 as A-10 brought the case to a halt and the two jumped out.

"Master Chris is your rightful owner now! We'll have no more of this Jason Kenobi jibberish!" A-10 said angrily.

Tim2 tried to explain but was cut off by A-10.

"And don't talk to me of your mission either. You're fortunate he doesn't blast you into a million pieces right here!"

"No, it's all right. But I think we'd better go." Chris said.

But when he turned to get back in the speeder Tim2 let out several frantic whistles.

"What's wrong with him now?"

"There are several creatures approaching from the southeast." A-10 reported nervously, knowing full-well that Tim2's sax was sensitive to the presence of other life forms.

"Drum Line! Or worse." Chris said as he made his way to a trail that led to the top of the canyon that they were hidden in. "Come on, lets go have a look."

A-10 followed him but Tim2 didn't. He hid himself in a small crevice in the canyon wall.

When Chris and A-10 reached the top of the cliff they both ducked for cover. Chris peaked back into the canyon below for any sign of danger.

"Well, there is an equipment trailer down there, but I don't see any- wait a minute. They're Drummers all right. I can see one of them now." Chris said, not paying any attention to what was behind him.

Chris suddenly heard the crash of drums and he was yanked from his hiding place. Chris rolled onto his back only to find himself staring into the terrifying face of a female Drummer. Her short blonde hair fell into her wild eyes as she jabbed her drumsticks at him. She let out a kind of war whoop and the two male Drummers who backed her up started to play a furious cadence.

A-10 gave a terrified shriek and fell to the ground in a dead faint.

Chris was overwhelmed by the clashing of the snares. The girl Drummer finally landed a blow to his head and knocked him unconscious.

The war whoops and the clash of the cadence echoed off of the canyon walls.

Tim2 cowered in his crevice when he saw the Drummers drag the unconscious Chris back to the speeder. He didn't know what had happened to A-10, but right now his concern was only for Chris.

The Drummers dropped Chris unceremoniously by the speeder and proceeded to go through its contents, thinking to make off with any valuables.

But just then a great howl came from the entrance to the canyon. The Drummers looked up and saw a dark, hooded figure approaching them, waving its arms madly.

The Drummers retreated in fright, leaving behind their finds. Chris still lay motionless in the sand.

As the figure approached the fallen boy, Tim2 beeped in fear. What was this creature?

Whatever it was, was bending over to check Chris' pulse. But then it seemed to sense another presence. The figure lifted its head and removed its hood, revealing a rather squarish face, dazzling sky-blue eyes, and short blonde hair. The man searched the canyon wall until he picked out Tim2.

"Hello there." he said.

Tim2 beeped a note of surprise. How had the man seen him?

"Come here, my little friend." he beckoned to Tim2. "Don't be afraid."

Tim2 took a step forward, beeping and nodding anxiously at Chris.

"Oh, don't worry. He'll be all right."

Just then Chris began to stir. When he finally opened his eyes the man smiled warmly down at him.

"Rest easy, son. You've had a busy day. You're fortunate to be all in one piece."

"Ben? Ben Kenobi? Boy, am I glad to see you." Chris said as he sat up.

"The Stadium Wastes are not to be traveled lightly. Tell me young Chris, what brings you out this far?"

"This little student." Chris said, indicating Tim2. "I think he's searching for his former master, but I've never seen such devotion in a student before. He claims to be the property of a Jason Kenobi. If he a relative of yours? Do you know who he's talking about?"

"Jason Kenobi." Ben said. As he repeated the name to himself a shadow drifted across his face. "Jason. Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time."

"I think my uncle knows him. He said he was dead."

"Oh, he's not dead. Well…not yet." Ben said with a bit of a chuckle.

"You know him?" Chris asked.

"Well of course I know him. He's me."

Tim2 beeped in surprise.

"I haven't gone by the name of Jason since, oh, before you were born."

"Well then, the student does belong to you."

"I don't seem to remember ever owning a student. Very interesting."

Chris was about to ask something else when he was interrupted by a bout of snares.

"I think we'd better get indoors." Ben said, helping Chris to his feet. "The Drum Line is easily startled but they'll soon be back. And in greater numbers."

But when the two reached the speeder Tim2 started playing frantically. That was when Chris remembered.

"A-10."

Chris rushed back up the trail, finding A-10 about halfway up. He was just coming to and he had a pretty nasty cut on his left leg.

"Where am I?" A-10 asked as Chris knelt beside him. "I must have taken a bad step."

"Can you stand? We've gotta get out of here before the Drum Line returns." Chris said worriedly.

"I don't think I can make it. You go on, master Chris. There's no sense in you risking yourself on my account. I'm done for ."

"No, you're not. What kind of talk is that?" Chris said while pulling A-10 up from the ground.

"Quickly. We'd better get on the move." Ben said from behind them.

The two helped A-10 walk to the speeder.

Later that day, the four had reached Ben's hovel, deep in the desert. As Chris bandaged A-10's leg he listened to Ben's stories of the old days.

"My father didn't fight in the wars. He was a navigator on an oil case." Chris contradicted Ben.

"that's what your uncle told you. He didn't hold with your father's ideals. Thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved."

"You fought in the alto sax wars?" Chris asked, surprised.

"Yes. I was once a Trombone Knight, the same as your father."

"I wish I'd known him." Chris said solemnly.

"He was the best cloud pilot in the world…and a cunning warrior. I understand you've become quite a good pilot yourself. "

Chris only chuckled at this, not wanting to aknowledge the praise further.

"And he was a good friend. Which reminds me, I have something here for you." Ben said, rising from his seat. He went to the back of the room and opened a small storage bin. From it, he withdrew a small instrument. "Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Jason on some damn, fool idealistic crusade like your father did."

"What is it?" Chris asked as he took the instrument from Ben. It looked like a piccolo, only instead of a regular piccolo head piece, the hybrid instrument had a trombone mouthpiece.

"Your father's band saber. This is the weapon of a Trombone knight. They understood that true power can only come through the union of brass and woodwind." Ben explained as Chris attempted to activate the saber. When he finally hit the right key a beam of icy blue light shot out of the end of it.

"Not as clumsy or random as a trumpet. An elegant weapon for the more civilized age."

Chris started to swing the blade around, entranced by it.

"For over a thousand generations the Trombone knights were the guardians of peace and justice of the old band. Before the dark times…before the Empire." Ben said quietly.

All of a sudden, Chris deactivated the band saber. He'd just thought of something.

"How did my father die?"

Ben hesitated a moment before answering.

"A young Trombone named Darth Fred, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Trombone knights. He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the Trombone are all but extinct. Fred was seduced by the dark side of the Drill."

"The Drill?" Chris asked, slightly confused.

"The Drill is what gives the band its power. It's an energy pattern created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the world together." Ben explained.

Not wanting to discuss the subject further, Ben turned away from Chris and went to examine Tim2.

"Now lets see if we can't figure out what you are, my little friend. And where you come from." Ben said as he reached into the bell of the sax.

"I saw part of the message. He-" Chris started to say.

"I seem to have found it." Ben interrupted as the image of the young woman appeared yet again.

"Section Leader Kenobi," the hologram began. "Years ago you served my father in the Alto Sax Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person. But my case has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to California has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the tenor sax of this mechanic student. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this student safely delivered to him in California. This is our most desperate hour. Help me Jason Kenobi. You're my only hope."

Having finished, the image vanished. There was a long silence before anyone spoke again. But Ben finally turned to Chris.

"You must learn the ways of the Drill…if you're to come with me to California High."

"California? I'm not going to California. I've gotta get home. It's late. I'm in for it as it is." Chris said, on the edge of panic now.

"I need your help, Chris. She needs your help. I'm getting to old for this sort of thing."

"Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire. I hate it! But- there's nothing I can do about it right now." Chris said, floundering for an excuse. "It's such a long way from here."

"That's your uncle talking."

"Yeah, my uncle. How am I ever going to explain this?"

"Learn about the Drill, Chris." Ben said firmly.

"I can take you as far as Bell Station." Chris said after a despairing pause. "You can get a transport there to Littleton High or wherever you're going."

"You must do what you feel is right, of course."

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, the fate of the world was being decided. Miles above the Earth's surface hovered the weapon that had the Brass Alliance in a frenzy. A giant flute station. It was he largest battle case ever built. At first glance one might have thought that it was a brass case. But it was nothing of the sort. This was the most powerful Woodwind case ever. And at its heart rested the Death Flute. When the giant flute was played it would have the power to destroy a high school.

At the moment, a meeting was being held in one of the forward practice rooms by the section leaders of the station. An argument was going on between two of them. Section Leaders Jillian and Shannon.

"Until this flute station is fully operational we are vulnerable. The Brass Alliance is too well equipped. They're much more dangerous than you realize." Jillian protested.

"Dangerous to your sax fleet, Section Leader. Not to this flute station." Shannon said firmly.

"The rebellion will continue to gain support in the Woodwind Senate and-" Jillian started to say.

"The Woodwind Senate will no longer be of any concern to us." Came a new voice from the doorway. This was Grand Section Leader Kate. She wore a drab green marching uniform and her black hair was swept up into a loose bun. She was accompanied by Darth Fred.

"I've just received word that the Empress has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Band have been swept away." she finished.

"That's impossible!" Jillian said, shocked. "How will the Empress maintain control without the sectionals?"

"The regional Section Leaders now have direct control over their territories." Kate explained. "Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this flute station."

"And what of the rebellion? If the Brass have obtained a complete technical copy of the Minimally Speaking Show it is possible, however unlikely, they might find a weakness and exploit it." Jillian said.

"The show you refer to will soon be back in our hands." Darth Fred said.

"Any attack made by the Brass against this station would be a useless gesture. No matter how hard a show they've obtained. This station is now the ultimate power in the world! I suggest we use it." Shannon exclaimed fiercely, slamming her fist down on the table they were seated at.

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a high school is insignificant next to the power of the Drill." Fred countered.

"Don't try to frighten us with your trombonist ways, Lord Fred." Shannon said mockingly. 'Your sad devotion to that ancient section has not helped you conjure up the stolen show files. Or given you clairvoyance enough to fin the Brass' hidden sto-" Shannon suddenly began to choke.

Fred had one of his hands up in the air as if he were manipulating some invisible force. He was slowly, methodically marking time with his feet. He allowed the rhythm to beat in his very blood. He summoned the energy of the Drill to focus on Shannon's throat.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Fred said as he tightened his grip.

Shannon was now clutching her throat, clawing at her collar in a desperate struggle to draw breath. Darth Fred just smirked coldly. The other section leaders looked on in shock as Shannon fought for air.

"Enough of this! Fred, release her!" Kate commanded.

"As you wish." Fred said as he backed away from Shannon.

She immediately collapsed on the table, gasping for breath.

"This bickering is pointless." Kate said sternly. "Now, Lord Fred will provide us with the location of the Brass storage room by the time this station is operational. We will then crush the Brass with one swift stroke!"


	5. chapter 5

(A/N) actually, Spifferoonigirl, I did indeed know that California high is a real high school. That's because the girl who plays Leia, Amanda, transferred to our school from there. I thought it would be kinda cool if I could work that in here because it works so well.

XXX

"It looks like the Drum Line did this." Chris said as he waded through the wreckage. He and Ben had been heading back to Chris' farm with A-10 and Tim2 when they came across a wrecked sand scaffold. The Mellophones who owned it had all been slaughtered.

"Look, there's drum sticks, trailer tracks…it's just that I've never heard of them hitting anything this big before."

"They didn't." Ben said. "But we are meant to think they did. These tracks are side by side. Drummers always march single file to hide their numbers."

"These are the same Mellophones that sold us Tim2 and A-10." Chris said, interrupting Ben.

"And these blast points…too accurate for Drummers." Ben continued, seeming to ignore Chris' comment. "Only alto saxophone troopers are so precise,"

"But why would Woodwind troops want to slaughter Mellophones?"

Ben didn't answer. He simply let his gaze slide over to A-10 and Tim2. Chris slowly began to realize what Ben's meaning was.

"If they traced the students here, they may have learned who they sold them to and that would lead them back…home." Chris concluded, panic rising in his chest as he raced back to his speeder.

"Wait Chris! It's too dangerous!" Ben yelled. But Chris didn't hear him. He was already gone.

Chris pushed the speeder to the max, fervently praying that he wasn't already too late.

When he finally reached the farm and jumped out of his speeder, Chris was dismayed to find the hovel in ruins. Smoke billowed from the entrance as he raced to it.

"Uncle Will!" Chris cried out desperately. "Aunt Courtney! Uncle Will!!"

When he didn't get an answer Chris came closer. Maybe they had escaped.

But then he saw it. Two smoldering figures lying outside of the entrance, partly concealed by the smoke. No! It couldn't be! It just couldn't be!

Chris sank to his knees and turned his head away. Tears leaked down his face. He couldn't bear to see the charred remains of the only family he had every known.

XXX

Amanda sat, half asleep, in her cell aboard the flute station. She was starting to loose track of the hours. How long had she been here? Had Jason Kenobi received her message?

Suddenly the door of the cell was flung open. Darth Fred entered, flanked by two sax troopers.

"And now, your highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden Brass storage room."

Then one of the troopers stepped forward. What he held in his hands terrified Amanda beyond all reason. It was one of the Empire's most infamous tortures. It was a tape player. And Amanda knew what it contained. A recording of a freshman concert band. She would be forced to listen to the awful sounds until she either divulged the information that Fred wanted or she went insane.

Amanda slid away from the sax trooper in fear as he hit the play button.

XXX

When Chris arrived back at the wrecked sand scaffold he found Tim2 and A-10 burning the bodies of the dead Mellophones. Chris got out of his speeder and walked over to Ben, his head bowed in grief.

"There's nothing you could have done, Chris, had you been there. You'd have been killed too. And the students would now be in the hands of the Empire." Ben said, trying to console Chris.

"I want to come with you to California." Chris said, looking up suddenly. "There's nothing for me here now. I want to learn the ways of the Drill and become a Trombone like my father."

Ben's face hardened a bit at this. He put his hand on Chris' shoulder and led him back to the speeder. Tim2 and A-10 soon followed.

The four piled into the speeder and quickly made off for their destination. It took the better part of that day, but when the sun was low in the sky they'd finally reached the outskirts of the school.

"Littleton High School." Ben said as they gazed on it from a distance. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

And indeed, caution was most crucial. For the first people that they came across when they pulled up to the main entrance were a group of sax troopers.

"How long have you had these students?" the leader asked Chris, referring to Tim2 and A-10.

"About three or four seasons." Chris lied.

"They aren't for sale if you want them." Ben added.

"Let me see your identification." the trooper demanded of Chris.

"You don't need to see his identification." Ben said, waving his hand a bit.

The trooper stared at him for a moment, confused.

"We don't need to see his identification." he said, almost as if he'd just thought of it himself.

"These aren't the students you're looking for." Ben said.

"These aren't the students we're looking for." the trooper repeated.

"He can go about his business." Ben said.

"You can go about your business." the trooper repeated helplessly.

"Move along." Ben said with a small smile.

"Move along. Move along." the trooper said, waving them through.

Chris piloted the speeder away from the troopers and into a parking lot.

"I don't understand how we got by those troops. I thought we were dead." Chris said as he climbed out of the speeder.

"The Drill can have a strong influence on the weak-minded." Ben answered mysteriously.

"Do you really think we're going to find a pilot here that'll take us to California High?" Chris asked dubiously as he eyed the entrance to the cafeteria.

"Well most of the best caser pilots can be found here. Only watch your step. This place can be a little rough." Ben said as he pulled his hood up.

But when they entered the cafeteria, Chris saw that "a little rough" was an understatement. The air was thick with the scent of vomit and alcohol. Drinking age laws had long since disappeared. In this new world you were lucky if you lived to be twenty, let alone the legal age of twenty-one. Fights were going on at every other table over games of poker.

But suddenly, the bartender spoke to Chris.

"Hey! We don't serve their kind here!"

"What?"

"Your students. They'll have to wait outside. We don't want them here." he explained.

"Just wait out by the speeder. We don't want any trouble." Chris said to A-10.

"I heartily agree with you, sir." A-10 said as he turned and led Tim2 out of the cafeteria.

Chris wandered away from Ben, taking in all the sights of the bar. But Ben soon found him again. When he did find Chris he was accompanied by a tall, pale boy with shaggy blonde hair.

"Bruchacca here is first mate on a case that might suit us." Ben explained to Chris as Bruchacca led them to a table in the far corner.

A lone figure sat at the table. His skin was light brown and his hair was jet black. He was fairly tall and his piercing brown eyes seemed to stare into your very soul.

"Keoni Solo." he said by way of introduction. "I'm captain of the Millennium Trumpet. Bruce tells me you're looking for passage to the California System."

"Yes indeed. If it's a fast case." Ben said.

"Fast case? You've never heard of the Millennium Trumpet?" Keoni asked incredulously.

"Should I have?"

"It's the case that made the Pueblo Run in less than twelve clicks. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?"

"Only passengers. Myself, the boy, two students…and no questions asked." Ben said forcefully.

Keoni smirked at this.

"What is it? Some kind of local trouble?"

"Lets just say we'd like to avoid any Woodwind entanglements."

"Well, that's the real trick isn't it. And it's gonna cost you something extra. Ten thousand, all in advance."

"Ten thousand?!" Chris asked, outraged. "We could almost buy our own case for that!"

"But who's gonna fly it, kid? You?" Keoni asked skeptically.

"You bet I could! I'm not such a bad pilot myself. We don't have to sit here and listen to-" Chris started to say. But Ben silenced him and turned back to Keoni.

"We can pay you two thousand now. Plus fifteen when we reach California."

"Seventeen, huh? All right, you guys have got yourselves a case. We'll leave as soon as you're ready. Docking bay 94."

"94." Ben repeated as he led Chris away.

"Seventeen thousand! Oh, those guys must really be desperate. This could really save my neck. Get back to the case. Get her ready." Keoni said to Bruchacca.

But once Bruce had left, Keoni was cornered by his worst nightmare.

"Going somewhere, Keoni?" Shofner asked, lifting his trumpet and pointing it at Keoni's chest.

"Yes, Shofner. As a matter of fact I was just going to see your boss. Tell Kim that I've got her money." Keoni said, slowly backing away from Shofner.

"It's too late for that, Solo. Kim's put a price on your head so large that every pit crew in the world will be looking for you. I'm lucky I found you first."

"Yeah, but this time I've got the money." Keoni protested as he sat at a table facing Shofner.

"If you give it to me, I might forget I found you."

"I don't have it with me. Tell Kim-"

"Kim's through with you! She has no time for smugglers that drop their cargo at the first sign of Woodwind cloud cases!"

"Even I get boarded sometimes. Do you think I had a choice?!" Keoni asked, reaching for his trumpet in the holster at his side. The movement was hidden under the table.

"You can tell that to Kim. She might only take your case."

"Over my dead body." Keoni said fiercely.

"That's the idea, Keoni. I've been looking forward to this for a long time." Shofner said, lifting his trumpet for the kill.

"Yes, I'll bet you have." Keoni said.

But before Shofner had a chance to move, a shot rang out and Shofner fell forward onto the table, dead.

Keoni sat there for a moment, trumpet in hand, staring at the smoking corpse. Then he got up and tossed a coin to the bartender.

"Sorry about the mess."


	6. chapter 6

"Her resistance to the recording is considerable. It will be some time before we can extract any information from her." Darth Fred reported to Kate.

Just then, a clarinet officer entered the practice room.

"The final checkout is complete. All systems are operational. What course shall we set?" she asked Kate.

"Perhaps she would respond to an alternative form of persuasion." Kate said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Darth Fred asked her.

"I think it's time we demonstrated the full power of this station. Set your course for California High." Kate said to the officer.

"With pleasure."

XXX

"Lock the door, Tim2." A-10 said urgently as the two students ducked into an abandoned classroom. Some of the rooms were occupied but these days Littleton High wasn't very populous.

Tim2 and A-10 had been waiting by the speeder when they spotted some sax troopers. Both had agreed that it would be best to hide so they had hurried back into the building to find a hiding place. The troopers were hot on their heels.

"Check this one." the leader said as the troopers reached the classroom. They tried to open the door but had no luck.

"The door is locked. Move on to the next one."

Once he was certain they had gone, A-10 unlocked the door and stepped out, followed by Tim2.

"I would much rather have gone with Master Chris than stay here with you. I don't know what all this trouble is about, but I'm sure it must be your fault."

Tim2 beeped a smart remark.

"You watch your language!" A-10 reprimanded as the two started back outside.

Chris and Ben met up with them soon after and the foursome made their way to docking bay 94.

When they entered the bay, Chris just stood and stared at the trumpet case that was parked there.

"What a piece of junk!"

"She'll make point five past met speed." Keoni said proudly as he came out of the case. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts. I've made a lot of special modifications myself. But, we're in a little bit of a rush. So if you'll just get on board, we'll get outta here."

Chris and Ben did as he said and boarded the case. Tim2 and A-10 followed behind.

"Hello, sir." A-10 said to Keoni as he boarded.

Keoni was just making a few last minute adjustments when he heard shouting from behind him.

"Stop that case! BLAST 'EM!"

Then several energy beams exploded over his head. Keoni whirled around, trumpet already in hand, and fired a few shots at the advancing group of sax troopers before turning and running back onto the case.

"Bruce! Get us outta here!" he shouted as he raced to the cockpit.

As the case lifted off Keoni reached the cockpit and strapped himself into the pilot's seat. It didn't take long for them to clear the system but the chase was far from over.

"It looks like a Woodwind cruiser. Try and hold them off! Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to met speed." Keoni ordered calmly as the two pursuing alto sax cases began to fire at them.

Just then, Ben and Chris stepped down into the cockpit.

"There's two more coming up. They're gonna try and cut us off." Keoni informed them as he continued to work the controls.

"Well why don't you outrun them? I thought you said this thing was fast!" Chris retorted.

"Watch your mouth kid, or you're gonna find yourself falling home. We'll be safe enough once we make the jump to met speed. Besides, I know a few maneuvers. We'll lose 'em."

Meanwhile the cases continued to fire at them.

"How long before you can make the jump to met speed?" Ben asked.

"It'll take a few minutes to get the beat from the metronome." Keoni answered tersely.

"Are you kidding?! At the rate they're gaining?!!" Chris shouted.

"Travel through metronome space ain't like dustin' crops boy!"

Suddenly a light on the console began to flash madly.

"What's that flashing?" Chris asked, pointing to the light. But Keoni slapped his hand away.

"We're losin' the deflector shield."

Just then a very loud pinging started to sound throughout the case. It started off slow and began to accelerate.

"Strap yourselves in! I'm gonna make the jump to met speed!"

As Ben and Chris went to their seats the pinging kept getting faster and faster until it was just a blur. That was when the Millennium Trumpet blasted off into the darkening sky, leaving the Woodwind cases in the dust.

XXX

"We've entered the California System." a clarinet officer reported to Kate.

Kate nodded her approval. The section leader was waiting in the main practice room, gazing out a window at the high school below.

Just then Darth Fred and two other clarinet officers entered the room, leading Princess Amanda.

"Section Leader Kate. I should have expected to find you holding Fred's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought onboard." Amanda said contemptuously.

"Charming to the last." Kate said, matching her contempt word for word. "You don't know how hard I found it signing the order to terminate your life."

"I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself." Amanda shot back.

"Princess Amanda, before your execution… I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this flute station operational. No school system will dare oppose the Empress now."

"The more you tighten your grip, Kate, the more school systems will slip through your fingers." Amanda informed her.

"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station." Kate countered. "In a way, you have determined the choice of the high school that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Brass storage room, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home high school of California High."

It took a moment for Kate's words to sink in, but they finally got through to Amanda.

"No! California is peaceful. We have no weapons! You can't possibly-"Amanda protested, on the verge of loosing control of herself.

"You would prefer another target?! A military target?! Then name the system!" Kate interrupted her. Then she walked back to Amanda, until she was standing right in front of her.

"I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time. Where is the Brass storage room?"

Amanda looked past Kate to the window. Just below them was California High, her home. She took a deep breath and bowed her head in submission.

"Aurora." Amanda answered softly. "In Aurora."

"There. You see, Lord Fred. She can be reasonable. Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready."

"What?!" Amanda asked furiously.

"Aurora is too remote to make an effective demonstration." Kate explained. "But don't worry. We will deal with your Brass friends soon enough."

"No." Amanda cried out. She tried to reach Kate but Fred held her back.

Meanwhile, in the bowels of the station, the engines began to operate the keys of the Death Flute. A giant machine sucked air from the atmosphere and into the flute. Before long, notes could be heard. The armored instrument was warming up. But, after a few moments, the flute reached the height of its register.

Paying no mind to the pain in her ears, Amanda watched as the flute fired on her high school.

The blasts shot through the night sky at break-neck speed. They struck the school and it exploded in a mountain of fire, killing thousands of innocent people.

XXX

The cries of the innocent did not go unheard, however. Many miles away, aboard the Millennium Trumpet, Jason Kenobi felt their pain through the Drill. He'd been watching Chris practice his skills with the band saber when he felt it. He abruptly sat down and put his head in his hands.

"Are you all right? What's wrong?" Chris asked him.

"I felt a great disturbance in the Drill." Jason answered softly. "As if thousands of feet fell out of step…and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible has happened." As he said this, he stared straight ahead, disturbed by what he'd felt. But he suddenly seemed to snap out of his trance. "You'd better get on with your exercises."

Chris went to reactivate the training probe he'd been using. An automated piccolo that fired shots at random. The object of the exercise was for Chris to deflect the blasts with his band saber but he hadn't managed to deflect a single one. He had burns all over his body to show for it.

Just then, Keoni entered the room.

"Well, you can forget your trouble with those Woodwind slugs. I told you I'd outrun them." he said smugly.

No one paid any attention to this.

"Don't everybody thank me at once."

"Remember, a Trombone can feel the Drill flowing through him." Ben instructed Chris, completely ignoring Keoni.

"You mean it controls your actions?" Chris asked while trying to keep his eyes on the piccolo.

"Partially. But it also obeys your commands."

Chris stood, motionless, waiting for the piccolo to attack.

"Stretch out with your feelings." Ben coached.

But this didn't help Chris. The piccolo fired and he failed, yet again, to deflect it.

Keoni laughed as Chris yelped from the sting of the shot.

"Pokey sections and ancient instruments are no match for a good trumpet at your side."

Chris deactivated the band saber and turned to face Keoni.

"You don't believe in the Drill, do you?"

Keoni smirked at this.

"Kid, I've flown from one side of this world to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff. But I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Drill controlling everything. There's no mystical energy pattern that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense."

"I suggest you try it again, Chris." Ben said, rising from his seat and fetching a shako off of one of the shelves on the wall. "This time, let go of your conscious self and act on instinct." Having said so, he placed the shako on Chris' head and pulled it down so that it covered his eyes.

"But- with the shako so low I can't even see. How am I supposed to fight?"

"Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." Ben explained as he activated the piccolo.

The piccolo came after Chris again but he couldn't see it. So he finally took Ben's advice. He allowed conscious thought to slip away and, gradually, he felt the rhythm begin to beat within him. Almost subconsciously he started to mark time with his feet. Suddenly he felt a surge in the air around him and he returned to reality with a jolt. The piccolo had fired and he had deflected it easily. Almost without even thinking about it. Chris whipped the shako off his head and stared in wonder at the downed piccolo.

"You see. You can do it."

"I call it luck." Keoni interjected.

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck." Ben said.

"Look, good against piccolo remotes is one thing. Good against a living…that's something else." Keoni countered.

Just then a warning bell sounded from the cockpit.

"Looks like we're coming up on California High." Keoni said as he stood and left.

Chris deactivated the band saber and he and Ben followed Keoni.

"You know, I did feel something. I could almost see the piccolo." Chris said, still astonished.

"That's good. You've taken your first step into a larger world." Ben said proudly.

Unfortunately there wasn't time for pride to last. The instant Keoni and Bruchacca brought the case out of met speed it began to rattle and jolt violently. The air outside was filled with dust and smoke.

"We've come out of metronome space into a dust tornado. Some kind of storm. It's not on any of the charts." Keoni said worriedly.

"Do they have dust storms in California?" Chris wondered out loud.

"Our position's correct, except…no California High." Keoni said.

"What do you mean? Where is it?" Chris asked.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, kid. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away."

"What?! How?!"

"Destroyed…by the Empire." Ben answered calmly.

"The entire sax fleet couldn't destroy the whole high school. It'd take a thousand cases with more fire power than I've got."

Suddenly another warning light started flashing on the console.

"There's another ship coming in." Keoni reported.

"Maybe they know what happened." Chris suggested.

"It's a Woodwind fighter." Ben said suddenly.

At these words Keoni immediately fired at the approaching case.

"It followed us!" Chris said as the small piccolo fighter flew past them.

"No. It's a short range fighter." Ben said, disproving Chris' remark.

"There aren't any bases around here. Where did it come from?" Keoni asked, still frustrated.

"A fighter that size couldn't get this far west on its own." Ben said to himself.

"He must have gotten lost. Been part of a convoy or something."

"Well, he ain't gonna be around long enough to tell anybody about us. Bruce, jam its transmissions." Keoni said to his first mate.

"It'd be as well to let it go. It's too far out of range." Ben counseled.

"Not for long!"

"Look at him. He's heading straight for that small cloud." Chris said, pointing out the window.

"I think I can get him before he gets there."

"That's no cloud." Ben said, his vice suddenly laced with fear. "It's a flute station."

"It's too big to be a flute station." Keoni said disbelievingly.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Chris said as the cloud began to take true shape.

"Turn the case around." Ben said calmly.

"Yeah, I think you're right. Full reverse. Bruce, lock in the auxiliary power."

Bruce did as he was told but the case continued to move forward.

"Bruce, lock in the auxiliary power!" Keoni said, getting more nervous by the minute.

Bruce growled loudly in response. Nothing he tried was working.

"Why are we still moving towards it?!" Chris asked frantically.

"There's a tractor beam that's pulling us in!" Keoni shouted back.

"There's gotta be something you can do!"

"There's nothing I can do about it, kid. I'm at full power. I'm gonna have to shut down. But they're not gonna get me without a fight." Keoni said as the case was pulled ever closer to the station.

"You can't win. But there are alternatives to fighting." Ben said gently.


	7. chapter 7

"Our scout cases have reached Aurora. They found the remains of a Brass storage room. But they estimate that it has been deserted for some time. They are now conducting an extensive search of the surrounding systems."

Kate stared angrily at the walkie talkie she held in her hand. The alto sax section leader had just reported back from Aurora. It was another dead end.

"She lied! She lied to us!"

"I told you she would never consciously betray the Brass." Darth Fred said as he entered the practice room.

"Terminate her…immediately!" Kate commanded furiously.

Just then Kate's walkie talkie signaled her again.

"Yes?"

"We've captured a case entering the remains of the California System. It's markings match those of a case that blasted its way out of Littleton High School." a clarinet officer reported.

"They must be trying to return the stolen show to the Princess. She may yet be of some use to us." Fred said.

XXX

"Boy, it's lucky you had these compartments." Chris said as he pushed the lid off of one of the said compartments and climbed out onto the deck. The last members of the Woodwind boarding party had finally left.

"I use them for smuggling." Keoni explained as he too, climbed out. "I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them. This is ridiculous. Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam."

"Leave that to me." Ben said as he and Bruchacca climbed out of another compartment.

"Damn fool. I knew that you were gonna say that." Keoni said, clearly exasperated.

"Who's the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?" Ben quipped with a small smile.

XXX

"There's no one on board, sir." a clarinet officer reported to Darth Fred as he entered the docking bay. "According to the log, the crew abandoned case right after take-off. It must be a decoy, sir. Several of the escape pods have been jettisoned."

"Did you find any students?" Fred asked the officer.

"No, sir. If there were any on board they must also have been jettisoned." she answered.

"Send a scanning crew aboard. I want every part of the case checked."

"Yes, sir."

As the officer left to carry out Fred's orders, the dark Drum Major stared at the case. Something wasn't right.

"I sense something. A presence I've not felt since-" Fred dared not finish the sentence. He immediately left to tell Kate of this new development.

Just then the scanning crew entered the docking bay. They would use their clarinets to scan for life forms aboard the case.

"The case is all yours. If the clarinets pick up anything report it immediately." a sax trooper said to the two clarinetists.

The two girls just nodded and proceeded to board the case. Two sax troopers stood guard at the entry clasp.

A few moments later a voice drifted out of the case.

"Hey out there!" the voice called to the sax troopers. "Could you give us a hand with these."

The two troopers just shrugged and boarded the case. A few moments later a scuffle could be heard coming from the case. Unfortunately for the troopers, none of the officers on deck did here it.

XXX

"TK421, why aren't you at your post?" TK421, do you copy?" a clarinet officer spoke into her walkie talkie. She was stationed in a practice room overlooking the docking bay when she'd noticed that there was no one guarding the entry clasp of the captured case.

The officer went to have o look out of the window that overlooked the bay just as one of the troopers came out of the case. She gave the trooper a questioning look. The trooper seemed to understand what she was getting at and held his walkie talkie up where she could see it. The officer finally got the picture.

"Take over. We've got a bad walkie talkie. I'll see what I can do." she said to the other officer in the room.

But no sooner had she opened the door to leave than she was flying across the room. The second officer looked up only in time to see a large fist connect with her face. The blow sent her sprawling to the floor. Both of the officers were unconscious.

Bruchacca stared down at the officers, admiring his handiwork as Keoni came up behind him and fired his trumpet at the security cameras mounted in the room.

A second later Chris entered the room with Ben, Tim2 , and A-10. Once he'd shut the door and pulled off the shako of the sax trooper uniform he'd stolen, he stared angrily at Keoni, who was also wearing a sax trooper marching uniform.

"You know, between Bruchacca's howling and your blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here!"

"Bring 'em on! I'd prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around." Keoni said as he too, pulled off his stolen shako.

"We've found the computer outlet, sir" A-10 reported to Ben.

"Log in. you should be able to interpret the entire Woodwind network."

With that Tim2 hooked his tenor sax up to the computer and played a few notes to bypass security. He worked at it for a bit and finally achieved the desired results.

"He says he's found the controls to the power beam that's holding the case here. He'll try to make the precise location up here on the monitor. The power beam is coupled to the main reactor in several locations. A power loss at one of the terminals would allow the case to leave." A-10 translated.

Ben stood still for a moment, staring at the computer screen. His expression was unreadable. But he finally stood straight, having reached a decision.

"I don't think you boys can help. I must go alone."

"Whatever you say. I've done more than I bargained for on this trip already." Keoni said grumpily.

"I want to go with you." Chris protested.

"Be patient, Chris. Stay and watch over the students."

"But he can-"

"They must be delivered safely or other school systems will suffer the same fate as California High. Your destiny lies along a different path from mine." Ben said gently as he opened the door to leave. But he turned to face Chris one last time.

"The Drill will be with you…always."

And then, just like that, he was gone.

Chris stared at the closed door for a few moments before he was interrupted by Bruchacca's grunt of mutilated English.

"Boy, you said it, Bruce." Keoni said, somehow managing to understand Bruce's speech. "Where did you dig up that old fossil?"

"Ben is a great man." Chris shot back.

"Yeah, great at getting us into trouble."

"I didn't hear you give any ideas."

"Well anything's better than just hanging around waiting for him to pick us up."

"Who do you think-" Chris started to say when he was interrupted by a few frantic whistles from tim2.

"What is it?" Chris asked A-10.

"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, sir. He says, 'I've found her!' and keeps repeating 'She's here!'"

"Who? Who has he found?"

"Princess Amanda." A-10 answered.

"The princess! She's here?!"

"Princess?" Keoni asked.

"Where?! Where is she?!" Chris pressed A-10.

"Princess?! What's going on?" Keoni asked, still confused.

"Level five, detention block AA23." A-10 answered. "I'm afraid she's scheduled to be terminated."

"Oh no. No! We've gotta do something!"

"What're you talking about?!" Keoni asked.

"The students belong to her. She's the one in the message! We've gotta help her!" Chris tried to explain.

"Now look. Don't get any funny ideas. The old man wants us to wait right here."

"But he didn't know she was here! It's just a little way up into the detention block."

"I'm not going anywhere." Keoni said adamantly.

"They're going to execute her. Look, a few minutes ago you said you didn't wanna to just wait here to be captured. Now all you wanna do is stay?!"

"Marching into the detention area is not what I had in mind!"

"But they're gonna kill her!!"

"Better her than me!" Keoni said, turning away from Chris.

Chris paced the room for a few minutes, trying to think of a way to get Keoni to join him. But suddenly he stopped and a sly grin spread across his face. He had a plan.

"She's rich."

At these words Keoni turned back to Chris.

"Rich?"

"Rich, powerful." Chris began to rattle off the adjectives. "listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be…"

"What?" Keoni asked, eager for more.

"Well more wealth than you can imagine."

"I don't know. I can imagine quite a bit."

"You'll get it."

"I'd better!"

"You will." Chris assured him.

"All right, kid. You'd better be right about this. What's your plan?"

"Uh…A-10, hand me those handcuffs, will you?"

A-10 handed Chris the cuffs and he approached Bruchacca with them.

"Now, I'm gonna put these on you-"

But right away, Bruchacca jumped away with a growl. Chris backed away with more of a whimper.

"Uh, Keoni…y-you put those on."

Keoni rolled his eyes and took the cuffs from Chris.

"Don't worry, Bruce. I think I know what he's got in mind." Keoni said to Bruce as he slapped the cuffs on.

Then the three headed for the door.

"Pardon me for asking, Master Chris, but what should Tim2 and I do if we're discovered here?" A-10 asked.

"Lock the door." Chris answered matter-of-factly.

"And hope they don't have alto saxes." Keoni added.

"That isn't very reassuring." A-10 said as the door was shut in his face.

XXX

"Where are you taking this…thing?" a clarinet officer asked Chris and Keoni as they entered the detention block with Bruchacca.

"Prisoner transfer from cell block 1138." Chris answered.

"I wasn't notified." the officer said, staring at the lot of them with suspicion. "I'll have to clear it."

But the second the officer turned her back to them they tightened their grip on the trumpets they held concealed behind their backs and loosened their grip on Bruchacca.

Bruchacca instantly broke free and snapped the handcuffs. He then went on a rampage.

"Look out! He's loose!!" Keoni shouted.

Then he and Chris started yelling and firing their trumpets, trying to create mass confusion. They pretended to fire at Bruchacca but were really firing at the officers and the security cameras. In the confusion, no one realized that the two carried Brass weaponry. Before long all of the officers lay dead.

"We gotta find out which cell this Princess of yours is in." Keoni said as he rushed over to the computer to check the files. "Here it is. 2187. You go and get her. I'll hold them here."

Chris just nodded and raced back into the cell block. Keoni turned back to the dead officers and noticed that one of their walkie talkies was signaling. He snatched it up and pressed the talk button.

"Everything's under control. Situation normal."

"What happened?" the officer on the other end asked.

"We had a slight instruments malfunction, but everything's perfectly all right here now. We're fine. We're all fine here. Thank you. Uh…how are you?" Keoni started to stumble over his words.

"We're sending a squad up."

"Uh…negative! Negative! We have a uh…sun block leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Uh…large leak. Very dangerous."

"Who is this? What's your drill number?"

Keoni finally gave it up. He threw the walkie talkie to the floor and blasted it.

"Never been good with conversation anyway. CHRIS!! We're gonna have company!!" he shouted, hoping the kid got the message.

Chris heard, but didn't pay any attention as he searched for Amanda's cell. Finally he found the right number and unlocked the door. When his eyes fell on the sleeping princess, he very nearly stopped breathing. She was so beautiful. Even after she had woken up he continued to gape at her. But she finally broke the silence that had fallen between them.

"Aren't you a little tall for a sax trooper?" Amanda jibed at him.

"Huh? Oh, the uniform." Chris said as he pulled the white shako off of his head. "I'm Chris Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you."

"You're who?" Amanda asked as she rose from her bench.

"I'm here to rescue you. I've got your Woodwind student. I'm here with Jason Kenobi!"

"Jason Kenobi! Where is he?!"

"Come on!" Chris said, grabbing Amanda's hand and racing out the door with her.


	8. Chapter 8

"He is here." Darth Fred said calmly.

"Jason Kenobi? What makes you think so?" Kate asked him.

"A tremor in the Drill. The last time I felt it was in the presence of my old master, Jason." Fred explained.

"Surely he must be dead by now." Kate reasoned.

"Don't underestimate the Drill."

"The Trombones are extinct. Their fire has gone out of this world. You, my friend, are all that's left of their section."

Just as Kate finished speaking her walkie talkie signaled her.

"Yes?"

"We have an emergency alert in detention block AA23."

"The Princess? Put all sections on alert!"

"Jason is here. The Drill is with him." Fred said with certainty.

"If you're right…he must not be allowed to escape!" Kate said fiercely.

"Escape is not his plan. I must face him. Alone."

XXX

Keoni froze when he heard the sound of fists pounding on the locked cell bay door. It wouldn't be long before they blasted their way in. Keoni and Bruce retreated further into the cell bay only to be met by Chris and Amanda.

"Can't get out that way." Keoni informed them as the first sounds of alto sax fire echoed down the long corridor.

"Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route." Amanda said, glaring at Keoni.

"Maybe you'd like to get back in your cell, your highness." Keoni said mockingly as he looked Amanda over.

Suddenly sax fire erupted over their heads. The troopers had broken through.

Amanda pulled Chris into one of the alcoves that held the cell doors. Keoni and Bruce took refuge in an alcove on the other side of the hall. Chris and Keoni began to fire at the sax troopers.

"A-10dr! A-10dr!" Chris signaled the student on his walkie talkie. "Are there any other ways out of the cell bay?! We've been cut off!"

"All sections have been alerted to your presence, sir." A-10 tried to shout over the noise coming from the walkie talkie. "The main entrance seems to be the only way in or out. All other information on your level is restricted!"

"There isn't any other way out!" Chris reported to the others as he continued to fire at the oncoming troopers.

"I can't hold 'em off forever!" Keoni said irately.

"This is some rescue." Amanda said sarcastically. "When you came in here didn't you have a plan for getting out?"

"He's the brains, sweetheart!" Keoni said angrily, indicating Chris.

"Well I didn't-" Chris was starting to say when he was interrupted by Amanda snatching the trumpet out of his hands and blasting away a grate on Keoni's side of the hall.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Keoni shouted at Amanda.

"Somebody has to save our skins!" she said before turning to fire at some more troopers.

Then she leapt across the corridor, tossed the trumpet back to Chris, and lowered herself into the destroyed grate.

"Into the garbage chute, fly boy!" Amanda ordered Keoni before letting herself slide down the chute.

"Get in there!" Keoni shouted to Bruchacca. But he just growled in complaint.

"Get in there, you big oaf! I don't care what you smell!"

Without waiting for more complaints, Keoni shoved Bruchacca down the chute.

"Wonderful girl! Either I'm gonna kill her or I'm beginning to like her!" Keoni said to Chris as he too crossed the corridor and slid down the chute.

Keoni fired a few more shots at the troopers before following the other down the chute. He let out a cry of disgust as he landed in a warm, sloppy pile of who knew what.

"The garbage chute! What a really wonderful idea! What an incredible smell you've discovered!" Keoni said as he tried to stand.

Meanwhile Bruchacca was beating his fists against the pressurized hatch that kept them imprisoned in the dumpster.

"We have to get out of here. Get away from there." Keoni ordered Bruchacca as he raised his trumpet.

"No, wait!" Chris tried to stop him but Keoni fired the trumpet at the door. The blast ricocheted off of the door and back through the room, nearly taking all of their heads off.

"WILL YOU FORGET IT?! I already tried it! It's magnetically sealed!" Chris shouted angrily.

"Put that thing away! You're going to get us all killed!" Amanda shouted at the same time.

"Absolutely! Look, I had everything under control 'til you led us down here! You know, it's not gonna take them long to figure out what happened to us."

"It could be worse." Amanda said grumpily as she stared at the muck she stood in.

Suddenly a groaning, creaking sound shuddered through the walls of the dumpster. Keoni looked around nervously, finally turning his gaze back to Amanda.

"It's worse."

But no sooner had Keoni finished speaking than the grinding noise resumed. Only this time, the walls actually began to move.

"The walls are moving!" Chris shouted, stating the obvious.

"Don't just stand there! Try and brace it with something!" Amanda ordered as she rushed over to a junked pole.

Keoni ran to help her but Chris hung back, trying to hail A-10 on the walkie talkie. But it did no good. A-10 had shut down communications in order to avoid capture. And while all of this was going on Bruchacca continued to wail and beat his fists against the locked hatch, completely ignoring Amanda and Keoni, who were still trying to raise the pole in order to hinder the wall's movement.

"A-10! Come in, A-10!" Chris continued to shout all the while.

"One things for sure. We're all gonna be a lot thinner!" Keoni said nervously when he turned back to see the wall closing in on them.

But finally, miraculously, A-10 activated the walkie talkie.

"Are you there, sir?"

"A-10?!"

"We've had some problems." A-10 started to say.

"Will you shut up and listen to me! Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level! Do you copy?! Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!!" Chris screamed desperately.

"No! Shut them all down! Hurry!" A-10 shouted to Tim2.

Tim 2 set right to work and in almost no time at all, the garbage mashers were shut down. Just in time to keep Chris, Amanda, Keoni, and Bruchacca from being crushed like so many blades of grass on a football field.

Chris was still crouched in the garbage, shivering with fear, when he realized that the walls had stopped moving.

"HEY! YOU DID IT, A-10!!" Chris shouted, his words barely understandable through his excitement. "We're all right! You did great!"

A-10 breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to understand Chris' words.

"Hey, open the pressure maintenance hatch on unit number- where are we?" Chris asked the others.

"3827!"

Tim2 did as he was told and released them from the garbage pit. Once free, Keoni and Chris shed the sax trooper uniforms. Their regular clothes were on underneath.

"Now if we can avoid any more female advice, we'll be able to get out of here." Keoni said, staring pointedly at Amanda.

"Then lets get moving." Chris said.

But Keoni turned and aimed his trumpet at the open garbage hatch, more than a little pissed off.

"No wait! They'll hear!" Amanda shouted.

But Keoni paid her no heed. He fired angrily into the pit. The blast ricocheted off of the walls with deafening force.

Amanda grabbed Keoni's arm and spun him to face her.

"Listen, I don't know who you are or where you came from. But from now on, you do as I tell you. Ok?" Then, without waiting for an answer, Amanda turned and marched away.

Keoni stood there for a moment, shocked. Then he darted after Amanda.

"Look, your worshipfulness, lets get one thing straight. I take orders from just one person. Me!" he said angrily.

"It's a wonder you're still alive. Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?!" Amanda grouched as she shoved past Bruchacca.

"No reward is worth this." Keoni said to himself.

The foursome continued to walk through the corridors, trying to navigate the maze that was the flute station. But somehow they managed to find their way back to the docking bay from whence they had come.

"A-10, are you safe?" Chris asked over the walkie talkie.

"For the moment. We're in the main hanger across from the case." A-10 answered.

"We're right above you. Stand by."

"You fly in that thing?" Amanda asked as she stared at the battered Millennium Trumpet. "You're braver than I thought."

"Nice." Keoni said sarcastically as he dragged Amanda away from the window they stood by. "Come on."

The four were about to head down to the docking bay when they were confronted by a small troupe of sax troopers.

"It's them! Blast' em!"

The troopers hefted their saxes but Keoni was faster. He fired his trumpet into their midst and the troopers pulled back. Keoni ran right after them, screaming his lungs out in a kind of battle cry.

"GET BACK TO THE CASE!!" he shouted to Chris and Amanda as he and Bruchacca raced away.

"He certainly has courage." Amanda said admiringly.

"What good's it going to do him if he gets himself killed? Come on!" Chris said, taking Amanda's hand and running. Another group of sax troopers was soon on their heels.

They ran until they reached an open door and ran inside. Chris stopped just short of falling into an abyss that dropped off into the core of the station.

"I think we took a wrong turn." Chris said, gulping nervously as he noted how his voice echoed in the chasm.

"There's no lock!" Amanda cried out after she had shut the door.

Chris immediately turned to a panel that was mounted on the wall beside the door and blasted it with his trumpet.

"That ought to hold them for awhile."

"Quick, we've got to get across! Find the controls that extend the bridge." Amanda ordered.

"I think I just blasted it." Chris said sheepishly.

"They're coming through!" Amanda said frantically.

Suddenly sax fire ripped into the wall above their heads. There were sax troopers firing at them from a doorway on the other side of the abyss.

Chris handed Amanda his trumpet and she took charge of their defenses. Meanwhile, Chris was untying a role of fishing line from his belt. The line should suffice to hold their weight. He threw the reel that held the line up to a light fixture that hung overhead. The reel held fast and Chris pulled the line taught. Amanda had managed to shoot down all of the enemy troops that blocked their escape.

Without wasting words, Amanda put her arms around Chris and the two prepared to swing across the gap.

"Good luck." Amanda said to Chris, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

With that, Chris leapt from the ledge, clutching both the line and Amanda for dear life. Miraculously, the two cleared the chasm and made the ledge on the other side. Taking no time for congratulations, they continued to run almost the instant their feet touched the ground.


	9. chapter 9

Jason Kenobi stepped out of his hiding place, having just avoided another group of sax troopers. Thankfully, he had already managed to shut down the tractor beam that held the millennium Trumpet captive. But escape was the last thing on his mind at the moment. There was still one task left undone. One injustice left standing……Fred.

Jason was just about to continue his search for the dark Drum Major when he felt a presence behind him. A power so dark and full of hatred that it seemed to poison the very air. There was no mistaking that presence.

Jason turned slowly around, finally ready to face what he'd been running from for so long.

Darth Fred stood before him, band saber ignited. The master and his former pupil stood facing each other for several tense seconds before Jason took out his band saber and activated it.

"I've been waiting for you, Jason. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but a learner. Now _I_ am the master."

"Only a master of evil, Fred." Jason said calmly as Fred lunged at him. Jason easily blocked the swinging blade and stepped to the side, forcing Fred to follow him.

Fred quickly took the offensive, throwing blow after blow at his former master. Jason still managed to block each blow. But he refused to attack Fred. He would only defend. Jason's refusal to attack only goaded Fred to taunt him.

"Your powers are weak, old man." he jibed.

"You can't win, Fred. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." As Jason said this he whirled around and gracefully blocked another attack.

Fred was already starting to get frustrated at Jason's lack of fear or weakness. He threw himself into the battle, throwing furious blows at Jason. But despite his crushing attacks, Jason wasn't showing any sign of weakening or fatigue.

_No matter, _Fred thought. _I will wear the old man down eventually._

"You should not have come back." Fred said ominously as he tried once again to run his old master through.

Jason blocked him effortlessly yet again. But Jason knew that even he couldn't keep this up forever. This was what it all came down to. The final battle in their long private war had begun. Only one would leave alive.

XXX

At the end of their long run, Amanda and Chris found themselves at the self same window where they had left Keoni and Bruchacca. The two were already there waiting for them.

"What kept you?" Keoni asked quietly without taking his eyes off of his case.

"We ran into some old friends." Amanda said casually.

"Is the case all right?" Chris asked.

"It seems ok…if we can get to it. I just hope the old man took care of the tractor beam."

All of the sax troopers were gathered at the far end of the docking bay, watching some sort of commotion. Keoni had no idea what they were all looking at and he didn't care.

"Now's our chance. Go!" Keoni hissed to the other three, racing from his hiding place and leading the mad dash to the case. Out of the corner of his eye, Keoni saw the two students making for the case. But once they had made it to the case, Keoni turned to see that Chris had stopped halfway there. He'd realized what it was that the sax troopers were watching.

"Ben." he whispered fearfully.

Jason was still locked in fierce combat with Darth Fred. Chris watched helplessly as the two titans clashed again and again. But for one small moment there was a break in the action. Jason lifted his head and smiled benignly at Chris, pushing his own energy across the space between them. He knew his time had come.

Jason raised his band saber in a last gesture of farewell. And then, just as Fred brought down his own saber to cleave him in two, Jason's body vanished into thin air, leaving behind his robes and band saber.

"NO!!" Chris screamed in agony.

At the sound of his voice the sax troopers turned and fired on him. Chris immediately snatched up his trumpet and returned fire.

"Come on!" Keoni shouted at him from the Millennium Trumpet

"Come on!" Amanda joined in Keoni's shouting. "Chris, it's too late!"

But Chris paid them no mind. He fully intended to pay each of the troopers back for Jason's death. But suddenly, Chris heard the dead master's voice in his head.

"Run, Chris. Run!"

This finally convinced Chris of his peril and he retreated to the Millennium Trumpet. All of the passengers quickly strapped themselves in and Keoni and Bruchacca made ready for takeoff.

"I just hope that old man got that tractor beam out of commission or this is gonna be a real short trip. Ok, hit it!" Keoni shouted to Bruchacca.

Bruchacca quickly fired up the engines and the Millennium Trumpet rocketed out of the docking bay and away from the flute station. Once they were a good distance away and safely in metronome space, Keoni started to breath easy again as his companions mourned the passing of Jason Kenobi.

"I can't believe he's gone." Chris whispered brokenly.

"There wasn't anything you could have done." Amanda said, trying to console him.

But, little did the grieving youth or the trumpet captain suspect, they were still being watched.

XXX

"Are they away?" Kate questioned Darth Fred back aboard the flute station.

"They've just made the jump into metronome space." Fred reported.

"And you're sure the homing beacon is secure aboard their case? I'm taking an awful risk, Fred. This had better work."

XXX

"Not a bad bit of rescue." Keoni said as he came back from the cockpit. "You know, sometimes I amaze even myself."

"That doesn't sound too hard." Amanda said mockingly. "They let us go. It's the only explanation for the ease of our escape."

"Easy? You call that easy?!" Keoni asked her furiously.

"They're tracking us." Amanda explained.

"Not this case, sister."

Amanda just sighed, noticeably exasperated.

"At least the information in Tim2's sax is still intact."

"What's so important? What's he carrying?" Keoni asked her.

"A show hard enough to destroy that flute station. I only hope that when the show is analyzed we can get it on the field. It's not over yet."

"It is for me, sister. Look, I ain't in this for your revolution. I'm not in it for you, Princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money." Keoni said sharply.

"You needn't worry about your reward. If money is all that you love then that's what you'll receive."

Amanda then rose from her seat and went to leave, speaking to Chris on her way out.

"Your friend is quite a mercenary. I wonder if he really cares about anything…or anybody." Amanda had no idea where she was going but anywhere away from Keoni would do.

"I care about him." Chris said to himself.

As Chris approached him, Keoni just sat staring at the wall. Amanda's words had stung him. Though he would never admit it.

"So, what do you think of her?"

"I'm trying not to, kid." Keoni answered sullenly.

"Oh."

"Still, she's got a lot of spirit. But what do you think?" Keoni asked, suddenly brightening up. "Do you think a princess and a guy like me-"

"No." Chris said, cutting Keoni off before he could even finish the question.

Keoni smiled smugly to himself as Chris stalked off. The kid was jealous. It was a natural reaction.


	10. Chapter 10

In the safety of met speed, it didn't take long for the Millennium Trumpet to reach the brass storage room, hidden at the very heart of the Douglas County System. Amanda knew that it wouldn't be long before the Woodwinds arrived so she had Tim2 taken straight to Section Leader Nick. The show and the layout of the flute station were analyzed and a plan of attack was concocted. The Brass army was put to work, and after three grueling days, the show was on the field and ready for battle. On the eve that the flute station was seen approaching the high school the warriors were gathered for a briefing. The section leaders had a plan.

"The flute station is heavily shielded and carries a fire power greater than half the Brass fleet. It's defenses are designed around a direct large scale assault. A single warrior should be able to penetrate the outer defense." Section Leader Nick informed them as he showed them the schematics of the flute station.

"Pardon me for asking, sir. But what good are trumpets going to be against that?" one of the warriors asked.

"The Empire doesn't consider a single warrior to be any threat, or they'd have a tighter defense." Nick explained. "An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Amanda has demonstrated a weakness in the flute station. The approach will not be easy. You are required to march through the opener and skim the ballad to the clumps. At that moment the target will be within range. The target area is only 2 meters wide. It's a small opening in the shell right below the main clasp. The place where the mechanism draws in air to power the Death Flute. The shaft leads directly to the core of the station. A precise hit on the right count will start up a chain reaction which should destroy the station. Only a precise hit will set up a chain reaction. There will only be two points in the show when the target will be in range. The clumps in the ballad and the very end of the closer. And the shaft is ray-shielded so you'll have to use trombones instead of trumpets. And remember, if you stay in step and correct form then the enemy will not be able to touch you."

"That's impossible! Even for a computer!" Another warrior burst out.

"It's not impossible." Chris reasoned. "I used to bulls-eye womp rats on my trombone back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."

"Then don your uniforms. And may the Drill be with you." Nick said to the warriors in parting.

XXX

Meanwhile, in the main hanger of the high school, Keoni and Bruchacca were preparing the Millennium Trumpet for departure. Keoni had no intention of joining in the fight. It was a fool's errand. Besides, if he didn't pay off Kim with the money he'd earned from the Brass leaders he'd have a lot more to worry about than the moral dilemmas of the world.

"So, you've got your reward and your just leaving?" Chris asked incredulously as he came up behind Keoni.

"Yeah, that's right. I've got some old debts I gotta pay off with this stuff. Besides, even if I didn't you don't think I'd be crazy enough to stick around here do you?"

"Come on. Why don't you take a look around. You know what's about to happen-what they're up against. They could use a good pilot like you. You're turning your back on them!" Chris accused angrily.

"What good's a reward if you ain't around to use it? Besides, attacking that flute station ain't my idea of courage. More like…suicide."

"All right then. Take care of yourself, Keoni. I guess it's what you're best at, isn't it?!"

But as Chris turned to go Keoni called him back one last time.

"May the Drill be with you. Chris." he said grudgingly.

Chris gave a short nod to this and walked away. Keoni turned back to his case only to find Bruchacca glaring at him.

"What are you looking at?!" Keoni asked angrily as he grabbed another box to load. "I know what I'm doing."

Chris, on the other hand, was far from knowing what he was doing. As he walked over to his station to ready his trombone for the coming battle he absently played with the buttons on the worn out red jacket of his marching uniform. Amanda noticed his unsettling demeanor and walked over to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked gently.

"Oh, it's Keoni. I don't know. I really thought he'd change his mind."

Amanda smiled slightly at this.

"He's got to follow his own path. No one can choose it for him."

"I really wish…Jason was here."

XXX

"Your student's sax seems a bit beat up. You want a new student?" a technician asked Chris as he led Tim2 to be hooked up into his battle station.

"Not on your life. That little student and I have been through a lot together. You ok, Tim2?" Chris asked the student as his sax was hooked up to a computer.

Tim2 beeped excitedly.

"Good." Chris said, taking a shako from one of the field attendants.

Just before Chris went to join the rest of the army in line, another technician attached a small device to the bell of his trombone. It connected him with Tim2's computer and allowed him to communicate directly with others on the field and back in the storage room.

When he was finally in line and the Brass army was marching onto the field, for the first time in his life, Chris Skywalker knew true fear. After all, he knew what they were up against. The others did not.

"All bandies report in." Chris heard Section Leader Eric's voice over the communicator on his trombone.

Chris listened as the entire section sounded off. When it was his turn he sounded the call.

"R-5 standing by."

Once all marchers were accounted for Eric gave the word.

"Lock the form in attack position."

"Here they come." A trombone warrior, Dukie, said excitedly.

Even though the sun was glaring in his eyes as it set, Chris could still see the giant station approaching the school. By the time it was within range, the sun would have already set. Chris started to hear some gasping from his fellow warriors as they laid eyes on the flute station for the first time.

"Look at the size of it." Johnny, another warrior, exclaimed.

"DRESS SET, DRESS!" Section Leader Eric shouted.

"And HIT!" the rest of the army complied.

"Accelerate to attack speed."

Then the on-field metronome activated. It played a count off of four beats and the army immediately broke into the show. Chris threw all of his concentration into staying in step and keeping in the form. After about ten pages Chris heard a voice coming from his communicator.

"Warriors, we've picked up a new group of signals. Enemy warriors coming your way."

That's when Chris saw them. Marching on the ground just under the Flute station was an entire army of clarinets and alto saxophones. Because the station wasn't in firing range yet, they'd sent out a forward defense. And it didn't take long for the troops to reach the field either.

"Carry on with the opener. I'll try to fall out of step and draw their fire." Eric said.

But just then, Chris heard Dukie's voice over his communicator.

"CHRIS! GET BACK IN STEP!!"

Chris realized that he was indeed out of step and quickly pulled it back together. At almost the exact same moment Chris felt the heat on his heels as sax fire ripped into the turf where he'd been standing only a second before.

"Are you all right?"

"I got a little cooked but I'm ok." Chris answered before continuing to play and fire at the oncoming troopers.

Just then another problem caught his attention. Johnny was shouting at another warrior, Brittany.

"Brittany! PULL UP! You're out of step!"

"No, I'm all ri-AAAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!!!" her protest turned into a shriek of shock and pain as clarinet fire tore into her body, destroying her instantly.

"T-Leader, this is R-Leader. We have five pages left until the target comes in range. I'll take a shot at it. Cover me, Johnny." Eric said.

Johnny immediately switched places with another warrior and kept next to Eric. Chris was somewhat unnerved by the slower pace of the ballad. He felt much more vulnerable to the Woodwind attacks. But he knew that if he kept in time he couldn't be hit.

Just then, they came to the clumps and Eric raised his trombone to fire. But Johnny suddenly realized something.

"We're too close to the yard line! Loosen up!"

"Stay on target." Eric said.

"We're not moving! I can't hold them!" Johnny said frantically as a sax trooper took aim at him.

Chris shuddered inside when he heard Johnny's death scream.

Eric, meanwhile, took careful aim and fired his trombone at the air shaft.

"It's away!" the section leader shouted as the energy bolt shot through the darkened sky.

"It's a hit?" another warrior, Jesse, asked.

Suddenly, Eric's face fell.

"Negative. Negative. It didn't go in. Just a scratch on the surface."

Meanwhile, onboard the flute station, a clarinet officer was reporting to Darth Fred.

"We count thirty Brass warriors, Lord Fred. But they're so well in step, they're evading our sax and clarinet troops."

"We'll have to destroy them warrior by warrior. Get the flutes on the field."

Down on the field, the battle was turning in favor of the Brass. Though they had lost quite a few warriors, the Woodwinds had lost even more. Now the closer had begun and they would soon set up for another crack at the station. Their last chance.

"How many piccolo snipers do you count, R-Leader?" Another warrior, Conner, asked.

"I'd say about ten snipers. Some on the field and some on the case." Eric answered. "I need more back up for the next attack. I've lost Johnny and I've lost Brian. Get set up for the final attack run-"

Eric's command was interrupted as a round of clarinet fire ripped into his body.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!"

Chris had no time to think about the section leader's death because he immediately received a warning from Dukie.

"Watch it! You've got one aiming at you!"

"I can't shake him!" Chris shouted desperately as he watched the sax trooper marching closer.

Suddenly, trombone fire slashed out of nowhere and cut the trooper down.

"Thanks, Jesse."

"I'm right with you, boss." she said.

"Dukie, Jesse! You're with me. R-Leader's gone and we're next in line to take the shot. We're taking the rest of the closer at 70 clicks. That oughta keep those saxophones off our backs."

"But, Chris. At that speed we'd never be able to pull out in time." Dukie protested.

"It's just like Drummer's Canyon back home." Chris said with exhilaration.

"All right. We'll stay back far enough to cover you." Dukie said as the three of them entered the final lick.

"Tim2, try and increase the power." Chris said to the little student stationed back in the storage room. Tim2 immediately set to work.

The target would soon be in range and their way was clear. It would have been an easy shot had another problem not emerged. Darth Fred came marching onto the field, leading two flute warriors.

"Stay in attack formation." Fred commanded the other two. "I'll take them myself. Cover me."

"Yes, sir."

Fred focused all of his attention on the trombone warrior leading the three-person attack.

"I have you now." he said to himself as he raised his own trombone to his lips and fired.

Fortunately, Chris' next forward movement took him out of the blast's path. But it still grazed his trombone. Right where the communicator was attached. Chris was still able to communicate with the storage room but the communicator was still connected to Tim2's sax. The blast sent a shock wave into the computer and into Tim2's sax. The surge knocked Tim2 out cold.

"I've lost Tim2." Chris said worriedly.

Amanda immediately looked up from the main computer screen and down the row of computer stations. Many of them housed dead students. The students had died when their masters' communication devices were destroyed. When her eyes fell on Tim2's station she saw him slumped over the computer console, unconscious. And as much as she wanted to help him, Amanda knew that if Tim2 was unplugged from the computer while Chris was still on the field and the connection was still active then the little student would die instantly.

Back on the field, trouble was brewing. The two flute warriors had ganged up on Jesse and managed to score a hit on her right arm. She was unable to play her weapon anymore.

"I'm hit!" she shouted to Chris.

"Get clear, Jesse. You can't do anymore good back there."

"Sorry." she grunted as she turned and marched straight off the field.

The two flutes would have been on her in a second had it not been for Fred.

"Let her go. Stay on the leader."

Next the twosome ganged up on Dukie.

"Hurry Chris. They're coming up much faster this time. I can't hold them."

Chris never had a chance to respond. The flutes chose that moment to fire. Dukie didn't even have a chance to scream.

Again, there was no time to mourn the death of his friend. Chris immediately activated the met on the communicator. He had to know exactly what beat to fire on. This was the last hope.

But just as he was drawing down to the final few pages, Chris heard a strange voice in his head.

"Use the Drill, Chris."

The Drill? Jason?!

"Let go, Chris."

Let go? Hardly. He needed the met to know when to fire. But no sooner had the thought entered his head than it began to seem silly. Who was he going to trust? The met…or Jason?

"Chris, trust me." the voice pleaded with him.

In that moment, Chris came to a decision. He'd never felt more confident in his entire life. He shut off the met.

"Chris, you've switched off your metronome. What's wrong?" Amanda asked through the communicator.

"Nothing. I'm all right." Chris answered serenely.

But suddenly, a warning bell sounded throughout the entire school.

"The Death Flute is clear to fire. Repeat. The Death Flute is clear to fire." a mechanized voice reported.

Chris heard the voice over his communicator. This was really it. He turned all of his attention to the task at hand, paying no attention to his pursuers. Fred had him in his sights.

"The Drill is strong with this one." Darth Fred said to himself as he readied himself to fire.

But just then, trumpet fire came thundering out of nowhere, taking out both flute warriors.

"What?!" Fred shouted furiously.

"YE-HOO!"

Chris didn't look back to see who it was, but he'd recognize that shout anywhere.

Keoni and Bruchacca came marching onto the field just in time to save Chris from being fried.

Keoni took another shot, destroying Fred's trombone and sending him flying off the field.

"You're all clear, kid! Now lets blow this thing and go home!" Keoni shouted to him.

But Chris barely heard him. He was in the very grip of the Drill. He could feel it flow about him as he took a deep breath and fired at the air shaft of the flute station. The station was directly overhead now.

Chris halted and looked up in time to see the energy beam shoot straight into the air shaft. Chris allowed himself to breath again. But there was no time for celebrating. Chris, Keoni, Bruchacca, and the remnants of the Brass army booked it off of the field. Chris looked back over his shoulder just in time to see the Flute Station explode into a million, fiery pieces. Killing all onboard.

"Great shot, kid! That was one in a million!" Keoni congratulated him once they had reached the safety of the main hanger.

But Chris wasn't paying attention to him. He was thinking back on the voice he'd heard. What was that?

"The Drill will be with you…always."

Chris looked around in surprise. None of the others had spoken. But Chris finally understood. He turned his gaze back out of the hanger and up into the night sky. Jason Kenobi. Gone, but not forgotten.

"CHRIS!" he heard Amanda shouting as she raced into the hanger. She was laughing and crying all at once as she ran over to hug him. Both of them literally danced for joy.

"HEY!!" they heard Keoni's voice as he approached their little circle.

Chris immediately jumped him.

"I knew you'd come back! I just knew it!" he shouted gleefully.

"Well I wasn't gonna let you get all the credit and take all the reward!" Keoni said jokingly through his laughter.

Amanda also came over and hugged Keoni. And he hugged her back, very fiercely. They only separated when they heard Chris' cry of dismay.

"Oh no!"

"Oh, my! Tim2, can you hear me?! Say something!" A-10 cried out, on the verge of tears as two paramedics disengaged Tim2 from his computer and laid him out on a stretcher.

"You can save him, can't you?" A-10 asked desperately.

"We'll get to work on it right away." one of the paramedics said as they pulled the stretcher away.

"You must repair him!"

"Don't worry. He'll be all right." Chris said, placing a comforting hand on A-10's shoulder.

XXX

It was nearly a week after the great battle. The Brass leaders had decided to bestow their highest honors on Chris, Keoni, and Bruchacca. Amanda would present them with medals. The ceremony would include all of the lavishness that befitted Amanda's office.

And indeed, Chris felt like it might have been a bit much as he marched down the isle alongside of Keoni and Bruchacca. He could feel the eyes of the entire Brass army upon him. But once the threesome reached the front of the great hall, Amanda's friendly smile wiped away all of their doubts. Her face became solemn, however, when Section Leader Nick stepped forward, bearing the medals of honor.

Amanda presented each of them with a medal. And finally they all turned to face the army. Chris couldn't help but smile as thunderous applause and cheering filled the hall. He allowed his gaze to drift to his side a little and saw that A-10 and Tim2 now stood beside him. Tim2 was as good as new.

Chris continued to smile joyfully. Though his heart still ached from the loss of his mentor, he was content for the moment. The Brass had won a great victory in their crusade against the Woodwinds.

The battle was won…but the war was far from over.


End file.
